Tag: Prison Ministry

On a Sunday afternoon in October, 14 inmates in the chapel of the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater listened as Jeanne McDonald, 60, read a prayer by Blessed Solanus Casey and highlighted two lines she thought they’d especially relate to: “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger.”

When we met, Tammy had yet to reach her 25th birthday. It was her second stint in prison, this time on a charge of armed robbery. At home, she had two young children, whom Tammy’s father was raising. She rarely saw them. To say that there was sadness in her eyes is an understatement. They were overtaken by a profound vacancy and despair. Tammy barely knew her own mother, for she had been imprisoned by the time Tammy was 15 and was still in prison.

The concert’s director is connecting the uncertainty, fear and hope of incarcerated mothers to another mother who may have experienced similar emotions 2,000 years ago, when she was preparing to give birth to the Messiah.

Matthews, who went to prison on for assaulting his girlfriend, learned about the Catholic faith through Deacon Zinda and joined the Church in 2015. It helped Matthews make changes in his life he desired to make but couldn’t on his own. “I didn’t have the strength to do it, so God gave me that strength,” Matthews said.

New corrections coordinator offers hope to inmates

Sister Mary Mark Mahoney grew up on a farm in Minnesota, taught grade school for 35 years, and helped start a house of prayer in Stillwater. But it wasn’t until the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet retired at the age of 84 that she discovered her greatest passion.